BOSTON — The Boston Celtics had won 125 regular-season games and 20 of their past 24 playoff over the past two years coming into their series with the New York Knicks, doing so happily being unapologetic about their historic 3-point shot hoisting.
But the Celtics might’ve finally reached a saturation point as they missed a record 45 of them Monday night as the Knicks took advantage in a 108-105 Game 1 overtime victory.
At one point in the second half, after the Celtics built a 20-point lead and looked to be on their way to a 10th win in their past 11 meetings with the Knicks, Boston missed its next 10 shots and all were 3-pointers. In all, the Celtics went 15-of-60 on 3-pointers, the most ever taken in a playoff game.
“Some of ’em felt good, some of ’em felt like we maybe forced the issue,” said Celtics star Jaylen Brown, who was 1-of-10 on 3s. “Definitely our rhythm and our timing was a little bit off. We got a lot of great looks, but it may be some truth [to shooting too many] today.”
Brown was correct on the open looks. The Celtics took 45 “uncontested” 3-pointers and missed 32 of them, per ESPN Research tracking. But the volume of attempts, even when the shots weren’t falling, caused the second guessing.
“Obviously in hindsight, if we could go back, we’d probably drive the ball a little bit more because we missed a lot of shots tonight,” said Celtics forward Jayson Tatum, who went 4-of-15 on 3s. “You can always go back and look and see what you should have done differently.”
On several occasions down the stretch, the Celtics ran offensive actions that put Tatum in favorable matchups against smaller or slower defenders, but he bailed out the Knicks by taking longer lower- percentage shots.
All the misses — Boston was 9-of-34 on 3s after halftime — opened the door for New York to claw back for the lead. After giving up 84 3-pointers in four losses to the Celtics during the regular season, the Knicks made two more 3-pointers (17) than the Celtics on 23 fewer attempts.
“I look at the process and the shot quality, [and] our shot quality was high,” said Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla, who has made it a mission for his team to seek as many 3-pointers as possible. “There were probably eight to 10 shots that could be better at for sure.”
That might sound resolute from the coach but that stance is softer than the one Mazzulla has taken in the past on cold shooting nights, a nod to just how many misses piled up.
After establishing a 20-point lead in the third quarter, the Celtics finished the game 3-of-28 on 3-pointers and took only six free throws in that span. Meanwhile, the Knicks saw OG Anunoby and Jalen Brunson score or assist on 55 of 63 points after halftime.
“In those moments when the other team got momentum you can’t just fire up 3s to break up momentum,” Brown said. “You got to get to the free throw line, get to the paint, get to the basket, maybe get an easy two. You hit some free throws and then maybe the next 3-pointer feels a little bit better.”